Windies tour management at odds with board

The management of the touring West Indies Cricket team is at odds with its cricket board over the issue of star batsman Brian Lara having his girlfriend with him on tour.

As the struggling tourists prepared in Perth on Thursday for the second Test starting Friday, captain Jimmy Adams supported a declaration on Wednesday by team coach Roger Harper that Lara had permission to be accompanied by the 19-year-old English model Lynnsey Ward.

Their stand comes in the face of a statement in the West Indies by the cricket board disciplinary committee chairman Lennox John, who said he was dismayed to learn Lara was spending time with Ward and feared it was distracting him from his task of making runs in Australia.

"I do not think that the team management should tolerate such a thing," John reportedly said in Kingstown, St Vincent.

"If persons leave to go and play cricket, then that must be the objective, not activities that are sure to act as distractions."

An angry Harper said Wednesday Lara had permission to have his girlfriend with him, and Ward's presence was not a problem.

Adams said on Thursday he also could not see a problem.

"This was something that was discussed before the tour started," he said. "The team management did not have a problem with it. We still don't have a problem with it."

He had not had any contact with the disciplinary committee, he said.

"No exception has been made for Brian," Adams emphasised. "These are issues that are discussed with team management before partners come out. Once the decision is made, then there is no problem. Brian followed that protocol, and nobody has a problem with it.

"Other girlfriends and wives will be coming to Australia to join players over the next few weeks."

Asked if Lara had been singled out in Australia as a tactic to upset him and the team, Adams said: "I don't know. I don't know what happens inside people's heads or hearts, but over the course of his career ... he is a great player... and that attracts attention."

Lara has scraped together only 43 runs from his four first-class innings on tour, sparking speculation he has been spending too much time with Ward.

The cricket-mad Caribbean has been watching the West Indies team closely during the Australia tour, with local fans growing increasingly frustrated as the team stumbles from defeat to defeat, culminating in an innings thrashing in the first Test in Brisbane last weekend.

"Brian has got to set his priorities right. As far as I am concerned, this means that if he is on tour with the West Indies team then the playing of cricket and performing well most certainly would have to be at the top of his agenda," John said.

Ward has stayed with Lara since the tourists arrived almost four weeks ago.

Lara, who holds world records for the highest individual Test (375) and first-class (501 not out) scores, has also come under pressure to answer allegations of match-fixing by India's Central Bureau of Investigation.

The CBI alleged earlier this year that Lara took 40,000 US dollars to underperform in two one-day games in India in 1995. Lara has refused to comment on the accusations.

Mail Cricket Editor